WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With a lefty on the mound and his former team across the way, Max Schuemann got a rare start Sunday afternoon and made the most of it again.
The former A’s utilityman started at second base for Jazz Chisholm Jr. and went 1-for-3 with a walk, two-run double and two runs in the Yankees’ 13-8 win.
“He provided a good spark,” Boone said. “I knew he’d give us good at-bats, and he did. So good to get him in there and have him play a meaningful role.”
Schuemann has drawn seven walks in 24 plate appearances this season, batting .294 with a .971 OPS in limited action since being called up last month.
Taking advantage of Amed Rosario being on the paternity list, Schuemann was right in the thick of the Yankees’ 13-run third inning, drawing a seven-pitch walk against lefty Jacob Lopez after Anthony Volpe led off with a single.
In his second at-bat of the inning — still with no outs, this time against righty Michael Kelly — Schuemann drilled a two-strike double over the third baseman’s head to put the Yankees up 10-3.
“[Schuemann] has done a good job, he really has,” Boone said. “His versatility, obviously it’s been a lot of defensive replacements or pinch-running situations. The at-bats he’s given has been excellent. … That’s something we noticed in spring. We feel like he can put together a good at-bat.”
Jen Pawol, the New Jersey native, former Hofstra softball player and first female umpire in Major League Baseball, was behind the plate calling balls and strikes Sunday.
“I think she did great, especially when we win,” Aaron Judge said with a grin. “I think she did great. I had her in spring training, I think once or twice, I don’t know if it was last year or this year. She’s on top of it. She’s locked in back there. A couple times, I asked her about a couple pitches, if they were down or if that’s the bottom, and she was right there locked in.”
Pawol, a full-time Triple-A umpire who was called up for the weekend series, made her MLB debut last summer.
The Yankees thought they should have been out of the first inning Sunday when Tyler Soderstrom grounded a potential double play ball to second base with one out.
But the 6-foot-5 Nick Kurtz, running to second, trailed off toward the third base side and got in Anthony Volpe’s way of throwing to first to finish it off.
Boone argued on the field that Kurtz should have been called for interference, but the umpires disagreed.
“The rule is that it has to be intentional,” Volpe said. “I didn’t really understand it. They understood it was just a weird play, but I think by the letter of the law, they couldn’t really do anything.”
Ryan Weathers and the Yankees were gifted a free strike in the fourth inning Saturday on a pitch that was out of the zone.
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Soderstrom challenged it, but there was a glitch in the automated ball-strike system, as it froze on the scoreboard and never showed whether the pitch was a ball or a strike.
Home plate umpire Adam Beck eventually announced that his initial call of a strike was upheld despite the zone on MLB.com appearing to show it as a ball.
“My understanding was that we got one,” Boone said Sunday morning with a chuckle.
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